Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo arrived in Taiwan today to meet with President William Lai (賴清德) for discussions on matters of mutual interest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Teo and his 11-member delegation were welcomed upon arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), the ministry said in a news release.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Tuvalu delegation includes the leaders of two Tuvaluan islands — Tuitonga Pelosa of Niutao and Siose Teo of Funafuti, it said.
During his six-day visit, Teo is to meet with Lai and Lin to discuss cooperation projects between their two countries and ways of strengthening the bilateral diplomatic ties and friendship, the ministry said.
It is Teo's first state visit to Taiwan since he took office as prime minister in February last year.
However, he made two other trips last year to attend Lai's inauguration in May and to participate in Double Ten National Day celebrations last month.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
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